New Departmental Honors Procedure Approved

The Economics Department recently approved a new, revised procedure for receiving honors:

To receive departmental honors in economics a student must complete the major with a minimum 3.5 GPA in the major and successfully write an Honors Thesis.  A student is considered to have a 3.5 GPA if their GPA is that high when the proposal is accepted or at the end of the semester when the thesis is completed.

Honors Thesis Procedure:

1. Students who are interested in writing an Honors Thesis should first enlist a member of the Department to act as the Chair of their Honors Thesis Committee.  In consultation with the student, the Chair will solicit two other members of the Department to act as committee members.   (Only under exceptional circumstances will a faculty member chair more than two Honors Thesis Committees during a semester.  If a faculty member receives more than two requests to chair, the Department Chair can be brought in to help find another Thesis Committee Chair.  There is no limit on the number of Honors Thesis committees a faculty member can serve on as a committee member (but not chair) each semester.)

2. The student will submit a written proposal of no more than five pages to the committee.   The proposal should provide a clear and succinct description of the thesis project; it should state the question that the student is attempting to answer, and the procedures and sources that she or he plans to use to answer this question.  The proposal should also prove the student has already obtained access to relevant data.  The submission date for a December graduate is the previous August 1.  The submission date for a May graduate is the previous November 15. 

3. The thesis committee will read and consult on the proposal.  The proposal must be approved unanimously.  If a proposal is not approved, the student will be given two weeks to revise and resubmit.  If the revised proposal is not approved, then the student will not be allowed to write an honors thesis.  The objective of the proposal process is to ensure that the members of the Committee have a clear understanding of what the student intends to do, and the student has a clear understanding of the Committee’s expectations.  Upon approval of the thesis proposal, the student must sign an Honors Thesis Contract.  The contract is shown at the end of this section.   The student should consult with the chair on his or her committee to arrange a regular schedule of meetings about the project during the writing process.

4. An oral thesis defense will be held by November 15 in the case of December graduates and April 15 in the case of May graduates.  One week prior to the defense, the student will submit a copy of the thesis to each committee member.  The oral defense will be open to all faculty and students in the Department.

5. After the oral defense, the thesis committee will consult.  The committee can vote to approve the thesis “as is,” to approve the thesis conditionally, or to reject the thesis.  If the thesis is approved “as is,” the process is over and the student will graduate with honors if the GPA requirement is met.  If the thesis is approved conditionally, the committee will explain to the student what must be done in order for the proposal to be approved.  The student has until the last day of the semester in which they plan to graduate to make all necessary changes.  The committee chair is responsible for determining whether the required changes have been made.  If the thesis now meets committee expectations, the process is over and the student will graduate with honors if the GPA requirement is met.   If the thesis is rejected, the student will not be able to graduate with honors.  Students should not lose sight of the fact that the thesis committee is not obligated to approve their project.

Other requirements:

The thesis will conform to the Chicago style guidelines. 

According to University policy the student must deposit a copy of the thesis in the library by the last day of exams, and the chair of the department must notify the Office of the Registrar that the student is to receive departmental honors by the date upon which Senior grades are due.

The thesis must have a department-approved cover sheet. Click on the links to download coversheets in Word or PDF format.

The final copy of the thesis must be deposited in Simpson Library by the Monday before the May graduation date.

Honors Thesis Contract

            To maximize the value of the thesis to the student, the student agrees to conform to the following guidelines:

• The student will meet with his or her faculty advisor on a regular basis during the writing process.
• A final draft of the thesis will be submitted to the thesis committee no later than one week prior to the scheduled public oral defense.
• A public oral defense must be held by November 15 in the case of December graduates and April 15 in the case of May graduates.
• If the committee approves the thesis conditionally, the student has until the last day of classes for the semester in which they plan to graduate to submit an acceptable final version.
• The thesis must have a department-approved cover sheet signed by all committee members.   It is the student’s responsibility to obtain all of the signatures.  
• The final copy of the thesis must be deposited in Simpson Library by the Monday before the May graduation date.
• The student may be expected to present the thesis in an open public forum like Undergraduate Research Day or a similar Department symposium.

I understand if I do not conform to these guidelines, I will not receive Honors.

_______________________________________________________________________
(signed by the student)